Back to normal
by Kascaboota
Summary: Everyone returns home after the game's end. T for mild swearing in future chapters.
1. Rhyme and Beat

"Nngh… my head…" Beat rose and looked around. It was pitch black and he felt rather disoriented. It smelled dusty and it was a little cold.

"What th-" A door opened and dim light entered the room. This disoriented him even further, and though he knew there was a figure at the door, he couldn't at all make it out. A voice jolted him.

"Beat! You're awake!"

"BWAAAH! WHO'S THERE, YO?" Well, maybe not.

He was up on his feet in a flash, ready to take down anything- A Reaper, Noise, The Comp- wait, that voice…

A pair of arms flew around Beat and he heard her laugh, saw the faint outline of her smile and a wet spot on his chest. The lump in his throat couldn't be swallowed down as he returned the embrace.

"It's me, Beat. Don't worry. We're home now! It's all over. We're back. Home…" She laughed again, that happy and relieved sound. It was the best thing he ever heard. It made Beat weak in the knees as the weight of everything they had been through collapsed onto him. _Home again._

"Rhyme… Oh god Rhyme, I thought you wasn't comin' back with me." He held her there for a precious moment before she wiggled out of his grip.

"Don't cry, big brother!" She wiped the tears from his eyes and he smiled.

"A'ight 'sis. I'm sorry yo, it's just been so crazy. I can't bel- wait! You called me big brother! You remember?!" She nodded, grinning up at him and he practically attacked her with another hug.

"… I missed you, ya know." She returned the hug again, letting her brother hold her. They were closer than any other brother and sister Rhyme knew, but… it'd been a while since he showed it this way. When Beat started the whole tough guy act, he withdrew some of his affection for people. Rhyme never wanted to point it out but she felt like it brought them apart, little by little. He thought it'd help him to protect Rhyme, make her feel safer, but this… a warm embrace and his guard being let down for once… that's what she really needed. No tension, just trust. Just love. She wanted things to stay this way.

"I love you, Beat."

"I love you too, 'sis."


	2. Shiki

Shiki woke up with a horrible crook in her neck. Her vision was blurry and she felt... different. Way different. Her clothes felt lighter, her legs felt shorter… but she felt warm, happy and she felt _very alive_.

As she straightened her head, her eyes focused a little and she saw a pair of glasses in her lap. Hers. She put them on and blinked as her eyes adjusted. She realized that she was sitting on a bench in what was certainly her own body, not Eri's. She looked to the side and smiled at what she saw. Hachiko.

A man wearing sunglasses bent down beside her, holding Mr. Mew up when he rose. Shiki couldn't quite see his face. "Excuse me Miss, is this yours?" He had a light smile. "Yes! Yes, thank you so much!" She hugged the plush tightly and the man nodded before walking away, never losing the smile.

Shiki sighed, feeling content. "Well Mr. Mew, it looks like we did it." She giggled, feeling positively euphoric and a little silly for talking to a stuffed animal. She couldn't wait to see her parents again, to see Eri, to go to school and shop at 104 with her friends!

_Her friends._ If she made it, so did Beat and Neku. She decided to wait there, like she promised her partner. She would every day until they saw each other, like a reincarnation of the loyal dog herself. The thought made her smile softly and she sit back, scanning the crowd idly.

Everything was perfect.


	3. Neku

Neku woke up sprawled in the middle of the scramble, looking as torn and ragged as he felt. It seemed like no one was looking at him as they went about their business in Shibuya, heading off to Hachiko or 104 or wherever else they pleased. He didn't notice that no one was walking _through_ him. That people were avoiding him. Rage built up in him.

Why was he here? And.. why was anything here? He had lost. Joshua shot him. Was he in the game again? No, he had been banned… what was his entry fee, in the shootout? Where was he supposed to go now? Confusion and anger and frustration built up in him.

"Why…?" Hot, angry tears welled up in his eyes and all of his pent up emotions surged out as he closed his eyes and let loose a scream that shook the whole scramble.

"WHAT THE _HELL_?!" His cry echoed a few times and he buried his face in his hands, grasping at skin and hair and the plastic of his headphones like a cat to the bark of a tree. He grit his teeth hard to hold in a sob. It worked, for now.

"… Neku? Are you okay?" A girl with glasses on touched his shoulder, causing him to flinch away from her. He wiped at his face frantically and tried to look composed; he didn't want anyone seeing him cry. He was opening up to people, yeah, but he certainly wasn't ready for strangers to see him cry or put their hands on him yet. Especially not strangers that were panting and sweating and somehow knew his name without him telling them first.

"What? Who are you? I don't..." He trailed off as realization dawned on his face.

"Sh-Shiki?" She nodded with a smile and held up Mr. Mew. He hadn't noticed her holding it until now. She pretended not to notice the tears for the sake of letting him keep some of his dignity.

"You bet! I'm impressed, did you even see me holding him?"

"Piggy? No, actually… Shiki are we in the Game again? What… what's going on? Did you wake up here, too?" He spoke frantically, not giving her a moment to cut in and answer a single question.

"Woah, woah, calm down! And he's not a pig, his name is Mr. Mew. _Mew._" She pouted a bit. It was strange to see the same facial expressions on a different face, but at least it was something familiar. "Anyways, in that order… No, we're in the RG, I'm not sure, and I woke up by Hachiko like 3 hours ago. I was waiting for you to show up and then I heard you shout so I came running."

His cheeks tinged pink with embarrassment and he ducked his face in his collar to hide it. So much for keeping his dignity. "... But I lost."

"Uh, no you didn't. We beat the Conductor and the Composer brought us all back. Remember?" That's not how he remembered it, not at all.

"But… the shootout. Don't you remember?" She just stared at him, brows furrowed.

"No. What are you talking about?"He understood. _Joshua, you crazy bastard. Thank you… _

"N-nothing. Anyways, Shiki, I owe you one." She dropped it like he hoped. Maybe he would tell her later, but for now, all that mattered was that everyone was safe.

"Huh? For what?" He grinned, the first time she ever saw that expression on the boy.

"Forcing me off of my high horse and teaching me to trust people." She smiled and hugged him, the gesture seeming almost nervous. He laughed a little while he hugged back.

"You're welcome, Neku."

* * *

AN: Alright, all the main Players done. Is anyone interested in me continuing for characters still in the UG? Feel free to throw specific requests at me(other than Joshua and Mr. H since I'll probably write for them either way).


	4. Sho

That… that stupid _hectopascal_.

Doesn't he realize that there was a point to my equations? I wanted beauty! Power! To bask in the glory of Shibuya as it was meant to be. But… it appears that I've made a miscalculation. The Composers power multiplied faster than mine, even when I went off on a tangent while he was trapped playing the Game. And of course, he wouldn't just quietly give up Shibuya. Not even if the intentions were positive. Tch…

_I'll never reach my desired solution now. I suppose that makes me a failure. Failures are garbage, and it appears that I have already been added to the heap._ A yoctogram of humor and irony; a means of tolerating the situation. Heh. After all, I hadn't a fraction of hope. Just a will to hold out to my real limit. A few hours more at best, and I would be Erased. A Reaper can withstand an impressive amount of damage, but the tolerance does not stretch to infinity. A broken body spells impending doom.

Footsteps echoed around me then, and laughter. I could just feel an aura of superiority engulfing everything in his radius. Of course… Some Old Horses Can Always Hear Their Owners Approach.

"Still here, Sho?" He came into my line of sight and kneeled down beside me, summing me up with a grin.

"Asymptote," I spat at him. "Brainless binomial, factoring hectopascal."

"Oh my, I do believe you've hurt my feelings. Kiss it better, won't you dear?" He pouted at me, bottom lip trembling. What an outlier.

"The probability of that happening is 0. What do you even want, centroid?"

"Hmph. Well, I had the intention of helping you out of there and giving you the opportunity to continue working for me as a Reaper… but you seem to be rather comfortable right where you are." He smirked, calculating gaze matching mine.

"You're bluffing." I had attempted to Erase the radian. No way he had any pathos towards me.

"_Negative_, hee hee. I lost too many quality Reapers in the last 3 Games. I want to keep everyone still standing. And, you know, if nothing else you're great for entertainment." Was he seriously trying to mock me? How cute. He must have had a decimal number of brain cells to think I would be compliant. After all, he seemed to actually need me. Maybe I could factor in some benefits of my own.

"And if I don't want to?" He shrugged at me.

"I could always just erase you. Your choice." Like that was a choice… zetta moron. He looked so bored. Could he have been bluffing? He was so difficult to read, that irritating little variable.

"…"

"I don't have all day Sho."

"… Fine. I'll do it. For now, anyways."

He chuckled and stood up, pulling his cell phone out of his pocket. "You never disappoint, dear."

I could only give him a dirty look as he hit some unknown sequence of digits on his keypad and everything in the heap shook before toppling over and shifting off of me. More button mashing and a series of warm beams of light hit me and the scene dissolved to white.

I blinked as my sight returned and realized that I was wearing a hoodie and a bandana. What the factor?

"You start back off as a wall Reaper, Sho. It'll be quite some time before you'll have much authority again. Even longer before you can hope to be a Game Master. Perhaps enough time to reconsider your intentions for Shibuya, when you try to usurp me again. Hee, hee."

"… This wasn't part of the deal. You didn't say I had to start over." Hard to breathe and talk behind the stupid thing. I like my bandanas tied behind my head, not worn like a stupid bandit. What worthless 000 thought this uniform up, anyways?

"I never said you'd have full power, and neither did you. Now, the next Game starts in 2 weeks from tomorrow. I suggest you go along with him and re-learn the ropes. Things have changed a lot since you were a wall Reaper, mainly the types of acceptable missions. I suggest you pay attention if you don't want to be demoted further. He's your superior for now and he has full power to make you a mere assistant to a wall Reaper." With that he left and the other Reaper just grinned at me from underneath his hood.

"Oh don't worry big guy, I like you already. You and I are gonna have a lot of fun… Sho, was it? Heh, my uncle used to have a cat named Sho. He had a really weird purr." _And you have a really weird laugh, _I thought. Really obnoxious. It made me want to turn his spine into a right angle.

"Look at it this way: it's better than mundane life as a human, right? No stupid petty things like chores… school… heh, no math homework! I always hated math. You, bud?" He nudged me with his elbow rudely and laughed hard enough to snort.

… Time went by zetta slowly until the next Game.

* * *

AN: Because Joshua wouldn't just let Sho off the hook, haha. Hope that wasn't _too_ OOC. It felt really weird to write. Math everywhere!

**IceKyurem:** I wanna go for the wall Reaper's POV too, but I have to dig around some gamescript first(I haven't actually played TWEWY since late '09). I'm assuming it's in week 3, but do you know which day said Reaper mentioned?


	5. AN computer issues

**This is an AN, not an update. Sorry.**

Okay… Well my computer is rebelling, and badly. It took literally an hour to boot it up. I was very surprised when it did, really. It's running okay for now, but I'm fairly sure it'll give me a hard time eventually. I'm running vista and my brother decided to give the computer a hard shutdown during a system recovery because he got impatient. Ack. Big no-no. :/ If my computer-savvy friend gives me the okay, I'll run a recovery disk. But it doesn't look great. I think there are several problems to be dealt with.

I tried to send an update through my phone yesterday, but apparently I can't use the copy/paste on it. I can see the box and everything but when I try and paste, it just copies text on another part of the page. It doesn't register the box as somewhere you can type into. So just a fair warning, if my computer goes kaput, I probably won't be able to submit anything for a while. I have another computer sitting around but that old thing will take some tinkering with to be decent.

If you know a way to upload from an android phone, do tell. I can access reviews, PM's etc. Just can't seem to upload. And I don't like going on hiatus. .

I'll try and get an update in before I make any more moves for a repair. (Just don't feed me to wolf Noise if I don't.)


End file.
